Latino workers pick crops on a farm near Huntsville. (The Huntsville Times/Michael Mercier)

While Alabama continues to press for tougher immigration laws, the national mood has appeared to shift, leaving Alabama law outside the preferred approach of most Republicans.

An Associated Press poll announced this week finds that the largest shift in views has been inside the Republican Party itself. The Associated Press poll found 52 percent of Republicans now favor creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

That’s up 22 percentage points since 2010, explaining much of the nationwide increase in support.

Overall, the poll found 62 percent of Americans favor creating a way to enable illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens. That’s up from an even 50 percent in 2010, the last time the AP asked the same question and a year before a Republican majority in the Alabama Legislature began constructing the toughest anti-immigrant laws in the nation.

This month Alabama continued the legal battle over its law. Much of the state's sweeping law has been blocked by legal challenges, with one notable exception, as local police in Alabama are allowed to inquire into immigration status during traffic stops.

In his bid for the White House, Republican nominee Mitt Romney had endorsed “self-deportation” policies similar to those attempted in Alabama. But Romney did poorly with Latino voters and Republican leaders began veering away from such policies immediately after President Obama won re-election. Just two days after the election, House Speaker John Boehner announced that comprehensive immigration reform was long overdue.

The AP poll found 23 percent of Americans now “strongly oppose” allowing illegal immigrants a pathway to U.S. citizenship. Another 12 percent “somewhat oppose” the idea. That combined total of 35 percent is down from 48 percent in opposition in a similar poll in 2010.